


The Demon

by Azuregold



Series: Mistyverse [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Does this count as Kid Fic?, Gen, Name Changes, Old Age, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-24 21:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1617884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azuregold/pseuds/Azuregold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn't <em>look</em> like a monster, she decided as she studied him from a distance. The people in the village told lots of stories about him, but then, she'd always been the type to find things out for herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Demon

**Author's Note:**

> Chronologically, this takes place before _On the Misty Shore_ , but it's meant to be read after, which is why it's part two instead of part one.

He didn't _look_ like a monster, she decided as she studied him from a distance. The people in the village told lots of stories about him, but then, she'd always been the type to find things out for herself. Mama would probably scold her later for going into the woods alone. But if she did find trouble today, this man wouldn't be the cause of it. The moment she'd laid eyes on him, she knew he'd never hurt her. She couldn't say how she knew. He looked terribly fierce, even asleep under a tree as he was now. People that weren't dangerous didn't get those kinds of scars. Their faces were softer, without the sort of harsh lines that defined this man's craggy features. And she didn't miss the swords resting by his side, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.

He was clearly a warrior. Skilled, too, to have lived as long as he had. It was no surprise the village children were terrified of him, but she couldn't summon even a drop of fear. The breeze ruffled his white hair as she crept closer. _That's not the right color,_ a voice whispered in her head, though she couldn't imagine what color the hair _should_ be.

She was four trees away from him when a deep voice cut the air. "You lost, kid?"

She jumped, instinctively moving closer to her tree at the sudden noise. Once she realized it was the man who had spoken, she calmed herself and stepped out, no longer bothering to hide the noise of her footsteps. "No," she said.

A grunt. "Someone send you on a dare, then? How close can you get to the demon of the bay?"

"No," she repeated. "I came for myself."

The man shifted, and one eye slid open. As it focused on her, he stilled, the eye widening, his mouth slightly open. His left eye remained firmly shut. Stopping in front of him, she noticed a deep scar running across the closed lid.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked at last.

"Mama says you're supposed to tell someone your name before you ask for theirs," she told him.

Something shifted in his expression. She studied him, trying to figure out what had changed. Abruptly, he gave a gruff bark of laughter, and she knew. He was sad. She had seen Papa laugh like that after something bad had happened, like he was trying to cheer himself up. But giving your name first was just manners. How could manners make you sad?

"Ah, I suppose," he said. He smiled at her. It was a small smile, as if he'd forgotten how to make a proper one, but it was real and it was warm. "My name is Zoro," he said.

She smiled back at him. "It's nice to meet you, Zoro. I'm Renata."

"Renata, huh?" he said. "Well, at least it starts with the right letter."

"You mean an R?" she asked. "Why does that matter?"

Instantly his expression became closed. "It doesn't. Never mind."

"But I want to know."

Zoro sighed. "It's not important right now." He looked up at her. "Why did you come here?"

She pouted slightly at his refusal to answer, but spoke anyway. "I wanted to meet you."

He blinked at that, straightening as he pushed himself back against the tree. "Why?"

She plopped herself down in front of him. "They tell a lot of stories about you in the village. They're all different, and they can't all be right, so I wanted to find out the truth myself."

"Oh?" One side of his mouth tugged upward in a ragged smirk. "Have you heard the one where I'm a terrible ogre, who hunts little girls and drinks their blood?"

She looked at him disapprovingly. "You have to tell it right! That story says you eat boys, too."

"Ah, my mistake," he said drily. "The last boy I had was a little too bony, you see, so I'm afraid I'm partial to girls now. Much juicier."

She giggled. "You're just trying to scare me."

"Is it working?"

"Nope." She grinned at him. "I like scary stories. But I don't think that story's true at all."

Bracing his arm on one knee, Zoro cupped his chin in his hand and cocked a snowy eyebrow at her. "Well, what do you think I am, then?"

"I don't know, do I?" she said. "That's why I came to see you."

"Mmm, but if you want to discover the history of something, you have to ask the right questions. The only people who get answers handed to them are the ones who wait for others to do it first."

Renata thought about this for a moment. "If I ask you questions, are you going to tell the truth?"

His eye twinkled. "Maybe."

She frowned at him. "You have to! Or else it won't be the true history."

Zoro drew in a sudden breath, the cheery light in his eye shifting to something lost and hungry. She wanted to ask if she'd said something wrong, but a moment later his expression smoothed out and she received another small smile. "All right, then. I was never the liar of the crew, anyway. I can't say I'll answer everything, though."

"All right." She fixed him with a businesslike look. "Are you human?"

He gave a wry smile. "As much as some might believe otherwise, yes."

"How long have you lived here?"

"Hmm." He leaned back, thinking. "Guess it's been about sixty or seventy years by now."

"Why do you live out here by yourself? Wouldn't it be easier in the village, so you could get help if you needed it?"

"Why, because I'm old?" He shook his head. "I have a home. I don't need another one."

"You mean your ship?" Renata glanced in the direction of the sea. She could just see it through the trees, bobbing cheerfully in the water with its bright colors. "It's a nice ship," she said. "The ones Papa takes me on aren't cute like that one."

Zoro snorted. "A friend of mine built it. Everything he does is like that; after a while it's just normal."

"Where are your friends?" she asked. "Everyone says it's always just you out here."

Ah, that had made him sad again. She bit her lip as a stab of raw pain flitted across his face. She was about to ask a different question – to tell him it didn't matter – when he spoke.

"They left," he said, the words so quiet they were almost lost to the breeze. "A long time ago."

She looked down, fingers twisting through the grass in front of her. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to make you sad."

A rough hand touched her chin, lifted her head so she was looking him in the eye. "It's all right," Zoro told her. "I'm still glad you came. And my friends will come, too. I just need to wait."

She looked at him worriedly. "But, if they're all old like you—"

"Aah, I'm pretty sure they're not old like me." She could still see the pain in his face, but there was determination there, too. "And it doesn't matter, anyway. They'll still come. I don't know how long it'll take, but they'll come." He ruffled her hair. "You helped me remember that."

"I did?"

"Yeah." He smiled. She noticed this smile was a little bigger than his first one. Maybe he had just needed practice. "You're just what I needed."

"You're kind of strange," she said.

Zoro laughed. "But not a demon?"

"No." Renata shook her head firmly. "I don't think you're a monster or a bad person at all, Zoro. I think you're really nice."

"Tch, just don't spread it around. You'll ruin my reputation."

She gave him a stern look. "Maybe you wouldn't be so lonely if you didn't scare everyone away."

"I don't need people dropping in to see me every hour of the day. I'm fine on my own."

"Everyone needs friends," she insisted. "And until yours come back, you'll just have to have new ones." She held out her hand. "Come on, I'll be first. You can make more later."

He stared at the hand, his ancient face flickering with a mixture of emotions. At last, a low chuckle rumbled through the air, and he reached out. His hand dwarfed hers; the powerful fingers wrapped easily around her palm, squeezing lightly.

"I suppose having one friend around wouldn't be too bad," he said. "No promises on making more, though."

"You have to," she insisted. "I don't want you to be lonely again when I leave."

He looked at her sharply. "You're leaving?" he asked. "The island?"

She nodded. "Papa brought Mama and me to stay here while he went to another island for business. When he's done, he'll come get us, and we'll go home." Seeing his expression, she quickly added, "But I'll come back, don't worry! Papa goes this way a lot, and I'm sure he'll let me come with him again!"

"You like sailing?" he asked.

"Yes!" She beamed at him. "It's my favorite thing, besides books. I like books, too." Then she scowled. "But people keep telling me girls can't be sailors."

"Then they're idiots," Zoro said, leaning back against the tree. "I've known a lot of girls that went to sea. There were two in our crew, in fact."

"You had girls on your ship?"

"Yep." He closed his eye, smiling. "One was damn annoying, bossier than the captain – but she was the best navigator you could ever have. And the other…" The eye opened and slid to fix on her. "She was a lot like you, actually. Real smart and wanting to know things. She loved books, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He gave her a stern look. "So if you want to sail on a ship, do it, and don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise."

* * *

Two weeks later, Renata left the island. She'd been to see Zoro as much as she could, but Mama wasn't easy to sneak away from. She'd had no luck finding anyone else to be his friend, either. The village children were all wimps, she decided – and the adults weren't much better. But she would come back – she had promised she would – and she would try again then.

It took her more than seven years to return. Papa's ships may have gone by the island quite often, but the number of trips that he would allow her to come along for was much fewer.

She almost flew off the ship, running to the forest as soon as she could. "Zoro!" she called. "Zoro, I came back! I'm sorry it took me so long!" A bird twittered from somewhere in the trees, but no deep voice answered her. Her throat tightened. Maybe he was just in another part of the forest, she told herself. Maybe he was too far away to hear. Or maybe his friends had finally come back, and he had left. At least then he would be happy.

She ran for the bay. Breaking out from the trees, she sprinted across the sand, gaze sweeping the water ahead. Nothing. The ship was gone. _That's…that's good, right? Doesn't that mean he left with his friends?_

"You looking for something, girl?"

She spun around. A man stood there; old, but not so old as Zoro had been. He carried a bucket and a long pole, and he peered at her from beneath bushy brows.

"I—" She swallowed. Her throat felt dry, and suddenly she was afraid to ask. "The man who was living here. Do you know where he is?"

"The crazy old swordsman?" The eyebrows inched up in surprise. "Didn't expect anyone to ask about him. He's long gone, girl."

"Gone…?" She could feel a prickling heat at the corners of her eyes, but fought to keep it back.

"Disappeared. Nearly three years ago now. Most folks figure he died; last person to see him said he wasn't looking too good. Though where the ship could have got to, that's a puzzle, all right." He shrugged. "Either way, you won't find him here. Good thing, too, or I wouldn't dare come to fish." He held up the bucket. "Great spot for fish, this, but not worth risking your life with a demon."

"He wasn't a demon," she said softly. "He was my friend." And with one last look at the bay, she turned and left.

* * *

He stood at the edge of the woods and watched the girl – no, young woman, now, perhaps – as she plodded up the hill. "I'm sorry," he told her, though he knew she couldn't hear. "I'm pretty useless right now, aren't I? Can't even make you see me." He snorted softly, one hand running through his thick green hair. "Tch, maybe you wouldn't even recognize me like this."

He squared his shoulders, eyes narrowing in determination as he stared after the retreating figure. "But you'll come back someday, won't you? You and all the others. That's why I'm here. So I'll keep learning. I'll keep training, so that the next time I see you, you'll see me, too." He smiled.

"I'll be waiting…Robin."


End file.
